Topic: [Smidge.Com] - A virtual, actively managed, multi-asset digital currency fund - page 7. (Read 28758 times)

Smidge.Com Weekly Snapshot

Quick Summary:

This week really showed investors how crucial it is not to put all your eggs in one basket. DCX lost 20.24%. We managed to finish with -1.85% in total and an identical NAV change due to no share buybacks or other changes. Investor confidence is very strong and current investors can call themselves lucky for being on board once again. The current volatility with some stocks is also evened out a bit because of the use of the the 7d Avg for valuation. A current day indication would place ASICMINER lower, but also LABCOIN and LTC-GLOBAL significantly higher.

September is around the corner and IPO plans/fund restructuring will be finished in mid September. I announced last week already that there won't be many news about this in the next two weeks, so please bear with us and prepare for an interesting September. I can only repeat that we are operating as normal during this phase, as you can see. We still have approvals from all three exchanges to IPO as soon as we are ready for it.

Balance Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing (Please note that the format is not final, still tweaking a few things here and there. Columns "E" and "I" are hidden for a clearer view.)

Comments:

• Our latest key investment in LTC-GLOBAL has helped a great deal with strengthening the portfolio. Meanwhile, voting rights have kicked in (happens automatically 7 days after purchasing the 10th share)
• ASICMINER crashed, giving us an opportunity to more than double up our amount of shares at attractive prices. Last time we saw this was beginning of June and we decided to buy on "bad" news, being confident that things (meaning dividends) will improve soon. Remember that the winner in economic downturns is the one that still has funds to invest when market bottoms are reached
• Ciphermine is not unfolding any of its potential yet as expected, mainly because of the hardware shipping issues (Avalon), LTC/BTC price and one of their large, early-stage investors choosing to liquidate some of his holdings in CipherMine for personal reasons. As Kate stated, this is not a reflection on the quality nor merits of the security. It is unfortunate that a relatively small volume can cause very large price movements in such an illiquid marketplace though. This is still an early stage and will unfold as we move forward and continue to support them
• Management fee from this week has been fully reinvested, while we operate in private mode
• Please note that dividends per share are still quite low and will be reinvested before IPO, this is due to the reason that we did not invest all of the additional coins. As discussed previously, we will not invest in just anything because excess coins are available
• No tips this week

Again, I would like to thank everyone for their trust, the great support, criticism and questions that we received. I hope to be able to meet everyone's expectations in the long run!

I'd like to ask about the fund manager's perceptions of the implications regarding German Finance Ministry news as pertaining to the fund.

http://www.dw.de/germany-lends-real-value-to-bitcoin-virtual-money/a-17038675

This news came out after Smidge management decided to hold off on the IPO to clarify legals and share structure.

The only negative implication I can imagine is the possibility of profits being taxed, however, now the Smidge team has an opportunity to consider this as they finalise the working arrangements of the fund, so perhaps it is positive.
As I take it, the decision by the GFM to declare bitcoin as money also legitimises investments, and so a fund such as this operated from Germany (I think?) could mitigate some of the percieved risk as mentioned by others in this thread regarding the legality of virtual securities exchanges.

Yes, given this fund holds a bit of AM it will be interesting to see what the manager's view of the price tumbling is. i.e.,
a) did he see it coming?
b) is it a buying opportunity?

Almost end of the week any updates

Hi arousedrhino,

Thats part of my reasoning too. Plus a lot of the risks affect the market as a whole, not only this fund in particular.

Honestly LitecoinGlobal might be closer to a bet on bitcoin exchanges themselves as an asset though it's fairly stable less that uncertainty.

Worst case for ltc-global. Bitcoin is illegal and America sends the CIA to shut burnside down and declare war on bitcoin.

Thanks superduh, thats an interesting take I guess from that perspective since the risk can't be filly quantified you might be right. I still think that its still a good asset to hold. We gain voting power and will receive dividends from high trade volume.

Smidge,

I know its a small percentage,  I was looking for superduh's reasoning that ltc-global were the most risky. I believe that icedrill is a risky asset but we only have a very small percentage on the balance sheet so I am ok with that. I do think that LTC-Global is far less risky that icedrill though.

i guess i should just rephrase and say EVERYTHING in bitcoinland is risky. heh

well, most of the mining stocks (not all) are just silly and may never reach ROI - they are for "gamblers"

i like burnside and his sites and he seems like a good chap - so far he seems to have done things more or less correctly
the biggest threat for ltc-global is of course---- legal aspects (security as well) - and what they may have to do in the future regarding compliance  - since this currently is a big unknown hence the risk - (risk = unknown factor) - that's all

Hi superduh,

Care to elaborate?

Hi arousedrhino,

Column "I" (hidden by default) shows the asset's percentage of the total portfolio. IceDrill is 1.19% at the moment.

Compared to icedrill?

Why?

ltc-global is probably one of the riskiest assets to buy atm -

Smidge.Com Weekly Snapshot

Quick Summary:

An interesting week lies behind us, with the market in downward motion. This time again, we managed to finish stronger than the DCX index which is down 5.3%, our NAV is down by 3.41% only. Fund size is down by 5.04% because of a single 7.5 BTC share buyback. Investor confidence is still very strong. We are still in the middle of building up assets from our large growth of the last weeks and made another key investment.

The IPO plans and fund restructuring (shares/legal setup) for September are slowly approaching the final stages of discussion. Even if there won't be many news in the next two weeks about this, please bear with us and prepare for an interesting September. We are operating as normal during this phase, as you can see. We still have approvals from all three exchanges to IPO as soon as we are ready for it.

Balance Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing (Please note that the format is not final, still tweaking a few things here and there. Columns "E" and "I" are hidden for a clearer view.)

Comments:

• We made another key investment, this time in LTC-GLOBAL. We acquired 10 shares for two reasons, 1) voting rights and 2) the trade volume growth is very attractive on the exchanges. We had a nice increase on the stock price since our buy date
• ASICMINER especially had some ups and downs this week, finishing stronger. This was mainly due to funds from the (forced) selling of BTCGARDEN that were freed and had to be reinvested
• Ciphermine's share price took a hit this week because of hardware shipping issues (Avalon). LTC/BTC is still not helping, with BTC/USD on the rise. We consider both to be small bumps in the road, with benefits unfolding soon
• Management fee from this week has been fully reinvested, just like last week
• Please note that dividends per share are still quite low and will be reinvested before IPO, this is due to the reason that we did not invest all of the additional coins. As discussed previously, we will not invest in just anything because excess coins are available
• Received 0.15 BTC in tips We sure like the constant stream of tips! If you want to keep it up, pls send BTC to 1LdrfoivfyMw8SdnfVefYAvVfSGxSPSVpS

Again, I would like to thank everyone for the great support, criticism and questions that we received. As an investor, I know very well that new assets are not easily trusted. I hope to be able to meet everyone's expectations in the long run!

(Please note that this Snapshot was posted one day earlier, as I will be on a one week business trip starting today. Daily operations will continue as normal, with a slight delay in response time to e-mails from myself.)

Hi,

I'm in many discussions these days, trying to get the share structure and legal setup done. As stated a few days ago, I expect the final decision (a setup ready for IPO) to be communicated beginning of September. Until then, we will be operating as normal. The fund is healthy and doing well.

On another note, we've made an interesting buy that will be included in Sunday's report.

Same here.